I could offer my opinion, but let’s instead use published, unaltered information from a pressure-treated wood industry document and other industry sources:

The 2014 Southern Forest Products Association pamphlet; Pressure Treated Southern Pine, states: “When properly treated, handled and installed, pressure-treated Southern Pine is safe and environmentally friendly.”

The pamphlet then goes on to list these “common sense” precautions for working with pressure-treated wood products (taken verbatim from the pamphlet):

• Do not use treated wood where the preservative may become a component of food, animal feed or beehives.
• Do not use pressure-treated wood where it may come in contact with drinking water, except for uses involving incidental contact such as docks and bridges.
• Wear gloves when working with wood to avoid splinters.
• Wear a dust mask when machining wood to reduce the inhalation of wood dust.
• Wear eye protection to reduce the potential for eye injury from wood particles and flying debris during machining.
• Clean up all sawdust and debris.
• Wash hands thoroughly with mild soap and water after working with treated wood.
• Wash work clothes separately from other household clothing before reuse.
• Dispose of treated wood in landfills or commercial/ industrial incinerators or boilers in accordance with federal, state and local regulations.
• Do not burn treated wood in open fires or in stoves, fireplaces or residential boilers.

I have to point out that gloves and dust masks are NOT required for working with most woods. The warning here is due to the chemicals in the wood, and the industry’s desire to avoid costly lawsuits (there have been a number of them).

Older pressure-treated wood, made before 2004, generally contains arsenic, so the hazards are even worse. If you have an older deck, it’s probably made with this stuff. Landfill disposal only. It may be locally classified as a hazardous material. You can’t just burn or trash pressure treated wood. That’s illegal in most places.

In addition, a University of Oregon study indicates that all four leading deck cleaners, when applied to pressure-treated decking, leach chemicals from the wood which then contaminate the ground around the decking.

Finally, many of the newest pressure-treatment methods use micro- or nano-sized copper particles. These particles are suspected as possible hazards by a number of organizations. This is a new controversy that is ongoing.

Is pressure-treated wood safe? It’s your home and your family. You decide.

One pressure-treated wood industry blogger wistfully wrote:

“Someday someone will invent a way to cheat nature out of its decaying wood without any hazards at all to humans or the environment. . .” He then goes on to tell us that pressure-treated wood is that answer.

Pressure treated wood may be an answer, but it’s not the answer.